Contemporary internet search software programs or tools provide indexing, categorization and representation of search results based on search terms provided by a user. In addition, such tools commonly provide for “frequently asked questions” support, which may commonly be presented as predetermined lists of common inquiries and the answers, as well as user “help” functions related to aiding users in the use of particular, narrowly defined tasks. Such tools utilize central servers to search and categorize as much information on the internet or other data sources as the tool can access. The tool then processes the information with the servers to provide results. Since some data changes at a relatively high frequency, a search provided by the tool may not provide completely current information.
The issue of not providing the current information is less of a concern for “external or surface” web services, such as web pages which are designed and intended to be utilized by a general population of users. Such “external” information may tend to be relatively static in composition and location, allowing the information and location to be found and categorized by search tools. The faster “external” web or data sources change, the less likely the search tools may tend to find and categorize the information before a search desires to find and utilize the information. However, the relatively static nature of “external” web information means search tools remain effective for such “external” sources.
“Internal or deep” web or data sources, however, may tend to be relatively, even significantly less static than “external” sources. “Internal” sources include information not necessarily intended for broad, unregulated public consumption, such as propriety databases and the like. For instance, a database of inventory for a sales company may be subject to rapid change. For a large company, the database may incorporate millions of entries and may provide thousands of changes per minute. Such a relatively dynamic environment may not be conducive to conventional Internet search tools which are oriented to more static, “external” data sources, as it may be impractical or impossible for the tool to keep the information sufficiently current for use.
In addition, developments in networking technology have started to impact the nature of the devices which utilize networking services. Increasingly, smartphones, tablets, televisions and radios incorporate networking capabilities in addition to, or in place of, networking capabilities provided by computers. As such devices utilize different capabilities for nominally different purposes, utilizing such devices in conjunction with one another may not be seamless.
Furthermore, to whatever extent Internet search tools and compatible devices do collect and provide access to Internet-based data, searching such data may be comparatively constrained. Traditionally, Internet search tools utilize statistical models of estimation and ranging to select the most statistically probable subset of data for the query. To whatever extent two users input the same query, the same result will be arrived at and provided. Consequently, many Internet search tools are not sensitive to queries each user may previously have asked and how such previous queries may reveal the desired information from the current query.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for an effective and efficient method of providing information to a user from a deep web and forming an effective and efficient interface.